Now some shadowy group called MoveOn.org has paid good money to produce and broadcast a remake the Lyndon Johnson’s notorious “Daisy” commercial . . . you know the one . . . it practically invented the political attack ad genre on TV.

MoveOn’s updated version poses questions about the risks of confronting Saddam Hussein’s brutal police state. “maybe the war will spread . . . maybe extremists will take over countries with nuclear weapons.” At the same time the screen flashes with scenes of Islamic fanatics tearing up American flags and smoky black skies over burning oil derricks and finally a dramatic mushroom cloud.

But wait, these are contemporary images. Anti-American sentiment is already at a fever pitch in parts of the Medieval East, extremists are already taking over countries and pursuing nukes, those battle scenes have already taken place.

You see the hidden message? All that was happening before September 11th. Now the Bush Administration is doing something about it.

After decades of crossing its fingers and looking the other way, the US is finally confronting extremist regimes that aspire to be nuclear powers.

It recognizes that anti-American demonstrations in that part of the world are for the most part staged propaganda events and irrelevant to any policy discussion.

Bush is also taking the responsible and possibly unpopular move of raising public awareness of the grave danger we face.

Maybe we can avoid the risk of nuclear confrontation by acting now before Iraq gets The Bomb.

No doubt it’s cleverly deceptive mind control operations like MoveOn.org that have created such a solid consensus on standing up to sadistic bullies like Saddam.

Let the inspectors work? Sure . . . but at the first sign of deception or concealment unleash overwhelming military force against this fascist. The world would be a healthier place for children and other living things.